USA > Maine > Penobscot County > Orono > Centennial celebration, and dedication of town hall, Orono, Maine, March 3, 1874 > Part 2
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esque and beautiful in memory and tradition, than it is the fortune of most families or neighborhoods in this work-day age to possess.
There is nothing new under the sun, and so we find the question of woman's rights was raised and decided long ago, at Oldtown. It was on the occasion of the termination, in September, 1816, of a bitter contest for the election of a chief, which was finally settled through the influence of the Catholic priest, who induced the Indians to leave all the rival candi- dates, and elect John Aittcon, a reputed descendant of the Baron de Castine by an Indian wife. The convention was held in the great wigwam, and there, upon the platform, were Aitteon, Neptune, and other captains and delegates, brave in scarlet broadcloth, brooches, collars, and jewels, while the space in front was crowded by the people of the tribe and of other tribes. The interest of the occasion drew many cit- izens to the village, and aware of their wishes to be spectators of the ceremonials, the Indian who acted as marshal was directed to admit them into the camp The admission of the female visitors was also re- quested ; but he replied, as directed by the chiefs,
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" Never our squaws, nor yours, sit with us in council." The earliest chief of this tribe of whom there is much authentic history, was the great Madokawando, the adopted son of a chief of the Kanabis tribe, by the name of Assiminasqua. The time of his birth is not known, but he was active in the wars of King Philip, and was intimate with the elder Castine, to whom he gave his daughter Matilde for a wife, or as one of his wives, for this learned and pious French- man had ante-dated, as it would seem, the creed of which Brigham Young is the modern prophet. He had Mogg, an able, cunning, treacherous Indian, for Lieutenant, or assistant Sagamore, until the death of the latter, which occurred at Black Point (Scarbo- rough) in 1677. Whittier describes him in these lines :
Megone hath his knife, and hatchet, and gun, And his gaudy and tasselled blanket on: HIis knife hath a handle with gold inlaid, And magic words on its polished blade- 'Twas the gift of Castine to Mogg Megone, For a scalp or twain from the Yengees torn; Ilis gun was the gift of the Tarratine, And Madokawando's wives had strung The brass and the beads which tinkle and shine On the polished breech, and broad bright line Of beaded wampum around it hung.
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Madokawando died in 1698. Drake, in his Book of the Indians, says, "He was not an enemy, nor do we learn that his people had committed any depre- dations until after some English spoiled his corn and otherwise did him damage." Hubbard called him a "sort of moralized savage." It is said that he always treated his prisoners well. Drake says he was suc- ceeded by his cousin, Wenamouet, or, as his name was sometimes spelt, Wennogonet; but in another place he states that Moxus seems the successor of Madokawando. I am inclined to think that Wena- mouet was the principal chief, and that Moxus, who was a Norridgewock sachem, held a relation to him something like that which Mogg had held to Mad- okawando, or, perhaps, Wenamouet was the counsel- lor, and Moxus the fighting man. Both of them appear in the subsequent history of the tribe. Moxus was at the great assembly at Falmouth in 1703, where the Indians met Gov. Dudley ; and at Casco, in 1713; and at Georgetown, in 1717, where he treated with the English.
But in 1727 it is said that Wenamouet, at the head of forty Sagamores, appeared at Casco Neck, where
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they met Gov. Dummer and a large number of coun- cillors, and held a conference which lasted a full week, and a treaty of peace was entered into, signed by Gov. Dummer and others on behalf of the Eng- lish, and Wenamouet and twenty-five Sagamores for the Indians. It was, according to Mr. Varney, in his well-prepared and useful " Young People's History of Maine," a great occasion, and the business ended with a public dinner.
Who succeeded Wenamouet or Moxus, I do not know, nor do I know when either of them died. But as Orono was born in 16SS, and so was thirty-nine years old in 1727, and as Wenamouet may have lived several, perhaps many, years after 1727, it is not un- reasonable to suppose that Orono may have been his immediate successor-an inference the more easy from the facts that after this time there was little trouble with the Indians, and that Orono was always inclined to peace and good neighborhood.
Joseph Orono, according to a tradition that re- ceived general acceptance among the old settlers, was the child of white parents, and was stolen in infancy by the Tarratines, from the neighborhood of
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Brunswick. I have heard it said that he had blue eyes, and perhaps the impression in regard to his ancestry may have had its origin in, or gained strength from, this fact. At any rate, all accounts agree that he was an able, sagacious, and friendly chief. IIe could ever say with Logan, and truth- fully, that he was " the friend of the white man." When the Revolutionary war broke out, resisting all solicitations of other tribes, he extended his sympathy, and tendered his aid, to the Americans, and at a moment when Indians in other parts of the State were threatening to join the English, Orono, Jo. Pease, Poreris, and another captain, arrived at Fal- mouth (now Portland), on their way to the Provin- cial Congress. Mr. Gilman, their interpreter, repre- sented Orono as a "man of good sense, and a hearty friend to the Americans." The people of Falmouth provided for them a carriage, horses, and money to help them in their journey to Portsmouth. What followed, is told by Drake in the following words :
" Only two days after the battle of Bunker Hill, there arrived at Cambridge, the headquarters of the Americans, a deputation of the Penobscot Indians,
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of whom the celebrated Orono was chief. An order was passed for their entertainment while there, and for their return home. They came to tender their services in the war now begun, which was done by Orono in a speech to a committee of the Provincial Congress on the 21st of June, 1775. 'In behalf of the whole Penobscot tribe,' the chief said, if the grievances under which his people labored were re- moved, they would aid, with their whole force, to defend the country. Those grievances were briefly stated, and consisted chiefly of trespasses by the whites upon their timber lands, cheating them in trade, etc. The committee returned an affectionate address ; and although the groans of the dying from the late terrible field of battle were sounding in their ears, they say nothing about engaging the Indians in the war, but assured them that 'as soon as they could take breath from their present fight' their complaints should receive attention. Some of the Penobscots did eventually engage in the war."*
* Referring to this visit of the Penobscot chiefs to the Provincial Congress, I am able to add the following extract from a letter written a few days af- ter the delivery of this address, by the Hon. William Goold, of Windham: "The Provincial Congress was, in June, 1775, sitting in Watertown,
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The Provincial Congress at this session strictly forbade all trespasses on lands claimed by the Indians, six miles in width on each side of the Penobscot river, from the head of the tide, up the river, as far as they claimed. And in 1786, a treaty was made, in which the Indians released all claim to lands on the Penobscot, from the head of the tide to the mouth of Piscataquis river, on the western side, and to the Mattawamkeag on the eastern side, reserving to themselves only Oldtown island, and all other islands in the river above it, to Mattawamkeag. The gov- ernment assured them the title in fee to these islands,
Mass., and Samuel Freeman, of Falmouth, was the sole delegate from that town, and was at the above date (and for three years) Secretary to that body. His father, Enoch Freeman who was deputy collector of customs in 1750 (the highest in office here), was, in 1775, the chairman of the ‘Commit- tee of Safety and Inspection' for Falmonth. In a letter to his son at Watertown, dated June 14, 1775, he says, 'Lane is returned here from Pen- obscot with four Indian chiefs, Orono, Joseph Pease, Poreris, and one more, bound up to the Congress. Orono seems to be a sensible, serious man, and a hearty friend. I can't help thinking that they shonkl be well treated, justice done them respecting their lands, etc , and care taken that they are properly supplied with such things as shall enable them to get their living in their own way, by which they may now and forever be se- enred to the interest of the country. We have had a conference with them, and they chose to reserve what they had to say till they got to the grand council of the Province. We have provided a chaise to carry them to Portsmouth, and money to Lane for their expenses. . . . One Mr. Gilman is their interpreter, who speaks their tongne freely, and seems to be a clever young man. We wished them a pleasant journey and a happy agreement with the Conncil."
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and to two others near Sedgwick, and that the lands above those granted should be kept open as hunting grounds, and not be occupied by settlers.
Controversies afterwards arose between the inhab- itants and the Indians, and a new treaty was made at Bangor, August 1, 1796, by which the Indians re- leased all their right to lands from Nichols' rock, in Eddington, thirty miles up the river, except Oldtown and the other islands above it. The Indians had previously conveyed to John Marsh the island, con- taining about five thousand acres, since known as Marsh island. The deed was executed-Jeremiah Colburn being witness-July S, 1793, by a committee of Indians, who represented that they had " good right, full power, and lawful authority," and conveyed " a certain tract or parcel of land situate in Penobscot river aforesaid, called Arumsunkhungan island, ad- joining Penobscot Great Falls, about five miles above the head of the tide." The consideration was " thirty bushels of good Indian corn." The sale was ratified in the following October, at a council of chiefs, held at the house of Robert Treat, Esq., in Bangor. Orono was present, and, with four others, signed the arti-
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cles there entered into. The Commonwealth con- firmed this grant to Marsh by resolve of the General Court.
The last treaty with this tribe was made February 20, 1819, in pursuance of which, ten of the principal men executed, in the succeeding June, a deed of quitclaim to the Commonwealth, of all lands on both sides of the river, above the tracts that had been previously released, except four townships six miles square, viz. : one at the mouth of the Mattawamkeag, another on the opposite, or west side of the Penob- scot river, and two to be surveyed contiguous to the ninth range of townships, all of which were to remain to the Indians forever. In return, the Commonwealth agreed to secure to the tribe the use of two acres of land in Brewer, opposite Kenduskeag Point, to em- ploy a man to aid and instruct them in farming, to repair their church, and to deliver at Oldtown, in October of each year, five hundred bushels of corn, fifteen barrels of flour, seven of pork, one hogshead of molasses, one hundred yards of broadcloth, half red and half blue, fifty Indian blankets, one hundred pounds of powder, four hundred pounds of shot, one
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hundred pounds of tobacco, six boxes of chocolate, fifty silver dollars.
By a resolve passed January 22, 1819, an annual stipend of $350.00 for their religious teachers was granted.
Orono died February 5, 1801, aged 113 years.
The venerable Mrs. Hall, who is living in this vil- lage, in the 97th year of her age, has a distinct re- membrance of this chief, and was present at his funeral. She describes him as tall, straight, well- built, and fine-looking, with blue eyes. Consider : the distance between us and the days of Addison, Dry- den, Pope; of Cotton Mather, and Gov. Dudley, is spanned by these two lives.
The following lines were written on the occasion of the death of Orono. They were attributed to Hon. Martin Kinsley, a prominent citizen of Hampden, and who represented, from 1819 to 1821, this District in Congress, and are to be found in Vol. 1 of Alden's Epitaphs, published in 1812.
" Ah, brother Sanop, what bad news you speak!
- Why steals the tear adown thy sombre check? Why heaves thy breast with such tremendous sighs? And why despair dart horror from thy eyes?
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Has the Great Spirit from the world above Called home your chief, the object of your love? Ah, yes! too well I know his spirit's fled; Too well I know your Orono is dead. Each warrior Sanop now unbends his bow, While grief and sorrow brood upon his brow; Each manly youth reclines his head and cries, ' In Orono our friend and chieftain dies.' Each young pappoose to sympathy is bred, And shrieking, whoops, ' your Orono is dead.' Each sombre face in pallid hue appears, And each his grief in death-like silence bears. The great Penobscot rolls his current on, And silently bemoans his oldest son. A century past, the object of his care, He fed and clothed him with his fish and fur; But now, alas! he views his shores in vain, To find another Orono in man.
For whiter Indians, to our shame we see, Are not so virtuous nor humane as he. Disdaining all the savage modes of life, The tomahawk and bloody scalping-knife, He sought to civilize his tawny race, Till death, great Nimrod of the human race, Hit on his track, and gave this hunter chase. His belt and wampum now aside are flung, Ilis pipe extinguished and his bow unstrung. When countless moons their destined rounds shall cease, He'll spend an endless calumet of peace.
EPITAPH. Safe lodged within his blanket here below, Lie the last relics of old Orono; Worn down with toil and care, he in a trice, Exchanged his wigwam for a paradise."
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These verses, if not remarkable for ease or grace, are worthy of being recalled on this occasion for the testimony they bear to the virtues and character of the good chief. What the grand and sonorous name which he bore signified, or whence it was derived, I have never heard. But I trust that it will be here perpetuated and honored, alike for its own beauty and for the sake of him from whom it was taken, till
"Countless moons their destined rounds shall cease."
Ellis, speaking of the arrival of Capt. Cook at the Sandwich Islands in the last century, tells us in his Polynesian Researches, Vol. 4, p. 3: "The news of such an event rapidly spread through the islands, and multitudes came to see the return of Orono, or the Motus (i. e. islands), as they called their ships."
If in the Tarratine as in the Hawaiian language, "Orono" means an island or islands, the name was certainly not inappropriate for such a Lord of the Isles as our Orono was.
It is not strange that so fine a name has been ap- propriated by other communities. There are post- offices, and I presume towns, of this name in Musca-
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tine Co., Iowa, and Sherburne Co., Minnesota. In Durham County, Province of Ontario, is a quite im- portant town called Orono. A Methodist minister who had resided and preached in Maine many years since, whose name I do not now remember, wrote me more than thirty years ago, that he gave the name to the town in Canada in recollection of the strong resemblance of its natural features to those of this town.
The first settlement in this town by white men was made in 1774, by Jeremiah Colburn and Joshua Eayres, and as their story is very fully given by themselves in a petition to the General Court of Mass. in 1776, I will reproduce it.
PETITION OF JEREMIAH COLBURN AND JOSHUA EAYRES.
To the honorable the Council and House of Repre- sentatives of the State, the Colony Massachusetts Bay, in General Court assembled at Watertown :
The Petition of Jeremiah Colburn and Joshua Eayres, of Penobscot River, humbly showeth :
That your petitioners have been settlers on Penobscot River for a number
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of years, and that your petitioners were obliged to quit their settlements, after making great improve- ments on their lands, by order of proprietors, or per- sons pretending to own or claim the land, to their great damage, and had no place to go to. Your pe- titioners went farther up the river and settled on wild and unimproved lands, five miles above any set- tlement, where they thought no person could claim to turn them off. There built two dwelling-houses, one-half a saw-mill, cleared a road to a meadow six miles, cleared another road to the inhabitants five miles, and cleared and improved a considerable tract of land, and built the other half of the mill by be- ing assisted by other people. Your petitioners began to build said dwelling-houses and mill in July, 1774, and in October following, moved our families upon the land, and there continued until May following ; in the mean time the Indians of the Penobscot tribe were continually at our houses, and we were always ready to assist them in anything they requested, and were always welcomed to any provisions they desired, which your petitioners have given them to the value of thirty pounds, lawful money, at least, and were
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always kindly treated by us. And in May, 1775, your petitioners, being apprehensive of some danger from reports that the Canadian Indians intended to assist the people of Great Britain that might come across the country and destroy us, thought it most safe to move in to the inhabitants. Your petitioners moved their families and effects, and remained from May to August following, and one of us from May, 1775, to June, 1776. All this while your petitioners were urged by the Indians to return to our settle- ments, and promised we should enjoy our possessions, and they would protect and support us in the same ; but since being acquainted that they had a promise of the lands from the Massachusetts Congress in June, 1775, we would not move again until they gave us their words that we should enjoy peaceably our pos- sessions. In dependence of the same, we moved our families up the time above mentioned, and since have heard they have resolved, in council amongst them- selves, that every family shall be removed above the line that was settled by the Congress in June, 1775. They say they have a promise when the General Court next sits, that there will be an order to turn
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us off, in consequence of which they have told all the inhabitants within their limits to get in readiness to move off when they gather their harvests. Your petitioners are always ready to comply with any rule, order, or regulation, as your Honours shall direct. Your petitioners would inform your Honours that we have spent all our substance in this settlement, and which renders us so poor, we are not able to move our families away. Your petitioners most humbly pray your Honours to take their difficult circum- stances into your wise consideration, and grant them such relief as you in your great wisdom shall see meet. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.
JEREMIAH COLBURN, JOSHUA EAYRES.
PENOBSCOT RIVER, 16th Aug., 1776.
Sept. 5th, 1776 .- The Committee to whom was referred the consideration of the above petition, have attended that service, and beg leave to report that the petitioners have leave to withdraw the same.
JEDEDIAH PREBLE, per order.
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Messrs. Colburn and Eayres, however, were never disturbed in their possessions.
Two days after the foregoing report was made, viz., Sept. 7, 1776, the General Court passed the follow- ing resolve for the payment of wages and rations to Jeremiah Colburn and Samuel Low :
On the petition of Jeremiah Colburn and Samuel Low,
Resolved, That there be paid out of the Treasury of this State to the above petitioners, the same wages and rations as were allowed to the other soldiers of Capt. Lane's Company, viz .: six dollars per month, and seven pence half penny per day, each, for rations, amounting in the whole to sixteen pounds and eleven shillings each.
It would appear from this resolve that the services of Mr. Colburn were recognized and remunerated.
Mr. Colburn appears to have been in Watertown, where the General Court was in session, for, five days afterwards, he puts in another petition, a copy of which, with the resolve passed in answer thereto, I
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will read, as they give us a view of matters on the Penobscot at that time, and show that Mr. Colburn enjoyed the confidence of the Legislature.
MEMORIAL OF JEREMIAH COLBURN.
To the honourable Council and to the honourable House of Representatives, in General Court assem- bled at Watertown, in the State of Massachusetts Bay, the 12th day of Sept., A. D. 1776 :
The Memorial of Jeremiah Colburn, of Penobscot, humbly showeth :
That your memorialist would inform your Honours, upon your appointing twenty men, together with ten Indians, as a guard at Penobscot, under the command of Lieut. Gilman and myself, that your memorialist would be glad to know if your Honours would order some subsistance and ammuni- tion for the said thirty men, by your memorialist, as he is bound home on his duty. And your memorial- ist, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.
JEREMIAH COLBURN.
Resolve for the delivery of gunpowder, &c., to Mr. Jeremiah Colburn, passed Sept. 17th, 1776.
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On the petition of Mr. Jeremiah Colburn,
Resolved, That the Commissary-General be, and he is hereby directed to deliver out of the stores be- longing to this State unto the petitioner, sixty flints and thirty pounds of gunpowder, and lead answera- ble thereto, for the use of the guard mentioned in the petition, and also provisions enough to supply the said guard for the space of three months, accord- ing to the established allowance in the army, he, the said petitioner, Jeremiah Colburn, to be accountable for the distribution and expenditure of the same.
These papers are copied from the American Arch- ives, Vol. 2, 5th series, a work prepared by Peter Force, and published by authority of Congress. We are fortunate to find a statement at once so full and so authentic of the time and circumstances of the settlement of this town.
JEREMIAH COLBURN AND JOSHUA EAYRES. Your ven- erable and respected fellow-citizen, Mr. George Ring, who was brought, in 1800, when he was five years old, to this town, where he has ever since resided, thinks that the first house in town was built in 1773
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by Joshua Eayres, but I regard it as more probable that his informant was in error than that Messrs. Col- burn and Eayres should have made a mistake in their petition. Williamson, in his History of Maine, says they settled here in 1774, and that John Marsh was on the Island soon afterwards.
Jeremiah Colburn built his house, (as I was in- formed Nov. 15, 1858, by the late William Colburn, jr., his grandson), on what is now Mill street, near where Wyatt HI. Folsom, Esq., lived at that time. Mr. Eayres, as Mr. Colburn, jr., told me, put up a house on what is now Middle street, a short distance from the Universalist parsonage, and nearly in the rear of the Orono House. He owned the island in the Basin that bears his name. This island was a great place for taking salmon, shad, and alewives, three-quarters of a century ago.
The first mill in town-that referred to by Messrs. Colburn and Eayres in their petition-was built, ac- cording to my informant, on the south side of the Stillwater, near a small island, and not far from the · match factory. Capt. David Read afterwards built a mill on the same spot. Both were saw mills.
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The first white child born in Orono, was Esther, daughter of Joshua Eayres. She was born April 30, 1777. In 1795 she married Wm. McPheters, and from that time to her death, Sept. 5, 1869, 74 years, she lived on the farm now owned and occupied by her son, Joseph McPheters.
Mr. Eayres moved to Passadumkeag in 1800, leav- ing his name attached to the island which has since became the seat of the most extensive lumber man- ufacture in the State, and to the falls which, as ap pears by the deed of the Indians to John Marsh, had been previously known as Penobscot Great Falls; at a still earlier date, as we have seen, they were called Arumsumhungan Falls.
Mr. Colburn continued to reside in this town till his death. He was born-it is believed, in Dracut, Mass .- in 1726. The name of his wife was Fanny Hodgkins. They were living in Brewer as early as 1773, for in that year Mr. Colburn visited this imme- diate locality in search of an eligible place for settle- ment. Ile seems, as a sensible man, to have been satisfied with what he saw here, for the next year he moved with his family and made a home, as already
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